Posts filed under: The Campaign

Safe homes – Protect Residents – Save Lives

Three years on, Justice4Grenfell joined by high profile supporters to demand the government commit to deadline to remove all flammable cladding.

London, 10th June 2020 – Nearly 3 years on from the Grenfell Tower disaster that claimed 72 lives, high profile supporters including Paloma Faith, Tinie Tempah and Ella Eyre rally behind Justice4Grenfell to urge the government to commit to a deadline to remove all flammable cladding as thousands of lives still remain at risk. On Wednesday 10th June at 9 am, supporters such as Lily Allen, GRM Daily, Ian Rankin and many more will post on their social media pledging to write to their MP’s to demand justice for Grenfell and encourage the wider public to do so too via supportGrenfell.co.uk.  Despite public outcry at the time, and continuous campaigning from many groups, no one has been held accountable for the disaster at Grenfell. Firms involved were granted immunity from prosecution for their evidence at the inquiry, the fire brigade was made a scapegoat at the first stage of the inquiry and hundreds of tower blocks – 23,000 households with Grenfell style ACM cladding, and up to 500,000 people living with other non ACM flammable cladding, remain at risk in the UK. 
  The government has recently announced a new fund for remedial work on high rise blocks to remove flammable cladding, which is a step forward. However, it missed its first deadline to remove all cladding by June 2020 (and was not near to reaching it pre-COVID-19). It has, as yet, not committed to another deadline, and has made funding to carry out the works complex, lengthy and obscure.
  Because of this, a number of influential names across various industries have come together to post an image which reads “Safe Homes. Protect Residents. Save Lives” alongside writing to their MP via a direct link supportGrenfell.co.uk demanding the Government commit to:
  A deadline to remove all ACM and non ACM flammable cladding systemA detailed timeline of how they will achieve thisThe Government being held accountable if they fail again

  Justice4Grenfell spokesperson, Yvette Williams, said: 
  “We’re aware that the government has recently announced a fund dedicated to removing cladding but it’s not good enough. They have missed their own deadline for all flammable cladding to be removed by June 2020.

It’s estimated the fund will only cover ⅓ of households, it’s offered on a first come first served basis, there is no commitment from the government to a deadline for completed works, and it does not cover buildings under 18m. Residents in one tower block in Manchester have been told that they are ineligible to apply for funding.

  For the people affected, there is still no clear understanding of the time frame to have these panels removed. We believe the Government needs to act with urgency and set clear timings for completion, and take accountability for an expedient removal.
  At a time where people are urged to stay in their homes more, safety is paramount. Over 23,000 households are still covered in Grenfell style flammable cladding 3 years after the Grenfell disaster. The fight for change and justice must continue as many thousands of people’s lives are at risk.”


Appendix
List of celebs who will be participating online and/or have pledged support:

Music 
Paloma Faith, Tinie Tempah, Ella Eyre, Lily Allen, Mystery Jets, Naughty Boy, Wilkinson, Flohio, Wavy The Creator, S1, SK, TK, DJ Charlsey, GRM Daily, Cerys Matthews, Doc Brown, Poundz, Digga D 

Cinema/Film
Hayley Atwell

Sport
Maro Itoje

TV
Jolyon Rubenstein

Comedy
Dane Baptiste, Mo Gilligan

Fashion
Ian Rankin, Vanessa Kingori 

MP
Richard Burgon   

Unions
GMB
RMT
ASLEF
Unite
FBU
The Communications Workers Union

3 Billboards Before Brexit

It has been announced that the long awaited Grenfell Tower Inquiry will be published on the 30th of October 2019 – the day before Brexit.

A deliberate ploy resigning the value, importance, and national interest of the disaster to the bottom of the pile of continued disrespect and neglect.

We @J4G fully support the letter sent by Grenfell United to inquiry judge- Martin Moore-Bick, asking that:

  1. The report is brought forward giving it the full public attention that it needs and deserves.
  2. The bereaved and survivors and community will not be silenced or shut down by governmental tactics of cloaking and silence.
  3. For the 72 known souls who perished at the hands of social indifference, neglect and malaise; that their voices must be heard and their story told.

Forever in our hearts.

Social inequality leads to injustice – J4G Statement

Social inequality was the most serious threat to the democratic fabric of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council (RBKC). It stood for years as the precondition for the preservation of the wealthy south of the borough.

Yesterday’s report by the Independent Grenfell Recovery Taskforce politely stated that ‘In many ways RBKC was a broken organisation in the autumn of 2017. It has repaired itself, and in some areas, it functions well. However, it is still some distance from being a high performing organisation that has the confidence of many of its residents in the north of the borough most affected by the tragedy. We hope to be proved wrong, but we are unconvinced that the current pace of change will achieve this in the foreseeable future. We are in agreement with most of this statement apart from any hope that they will be proved wrong.

At the administration committee on Monday evening, this preservation was seen in its ugliest form; embedded at the centre of a new borough constitution.

The horror of what happened at Grenfell tower continues to hang heavily over North Kensington. The above precondition has a hand in what happened there. The old leadership of the council ‘resigned’ and a ‘new’ leadership gave plaudits to themselves about how they had changed and how they relished future working the local community and had developed ‘new’ ears to listen and learn from us.

In reality, this should not have been something new. In a democratic society, all public institutions should reflect the diversity of those they serve; where this isn’t the case, good practice should enable all voices to be heard; effective community engagement is a dialogue not a monologue. It is about participation not domination; it’s about humanity, fairness, transparency, the list is not exhaustive.

The new proposed constitution was available on the council’s website 5 days before the meeting. The size of the document easily rivalled that of novel war and peace! The community was expected to digest and analyse it with in this time.  RBKC asserted that the constitution had gone out for consultation; where? On the website;  to whom? Resident Associations (RA) – three resident association representatives present at the meeting stated they had not been contacted. Could RBKC provide the list of RA’s that they had contacted – no definitive list was produced to evidence this. There had been a public meeting to consult – how many attended? Fifteen! Due to the small number of attendees no breakdown of their diversity was collated.

In August 2017, we met the then new CEO, Barry Quirk to the urgent need for quality community engagement and communication. One of the issues raised was the need for documents in particular complex documents to have plain English and to even consider getting a crystal mark for council documents. These have never materialised; further to this no Easy read documents are produced, crucial documents are not translated into community languages; there are no BSL signers present at council meetings. This gives a clearer picture of who they don’t want to consult, communicate or engage with.

The question that remains the elephant in the room is why are RBKC rushing this constitution change through. Well, at the heart of the proposed changes is their need to remove the Grenfell Recovery Scrutiny Committee. The committee set up in the aftermath of the Fire. Why we asked because the work that it does can be subsumed into four other committees – housing, adult and social care ………..

RBKC’s second response is that the GRSC is not effective. Why? They gave two reasons – one was the ‘community’ didn’t conduct itself in a manner that enabled ‘their’ business to be conducted. The second was more alarming – they wanted government ministers to attend the scrutiny committee to discuss Grenfell related issues, but alluded that were somewhat frightened to attend because we, yes we the residents posed some kind of threat! Unbelievable

We have asked for a deferral before adopting the new constitution – RBKC chose to ignore this and the Leadership meeting on the 24thJuly 2019 will, no doubt, rubber stamp it.

We search the RBKC website for an equality impact assessment that should have been done alongside this huge constructional change. We cannot find it.

After the worst disaster since world war 2, RBKC was in a position to effect real change and listen to its residents, they had the opportunity to try new and innovative ways of consulting and engaging its diverse community, they could have become an exemplar model of how a Local authority can be run when you effectively work iin partnership. Rather than take the road less travelled, they are content and secure to continue business as usual. Shame on them.

The outstanding question is who is holding RBKC to account? Or to coin a latin phrase, Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Who is guarding the guards, who is watching the watchers? Or will they be allowed to continue to widen the gap of social inequality in the borough.

They had year of practice.

 

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Message of solidarity from the Justice 4 Grenfell Campaign on the 2nd Anniversary

On the 2nd anniversary of the Grenfell Tower disaster, the Justice 4 Grenfell Campaign cannot find enough word to express our gratitude for your outpouring of assistance and remarkable support over the last 2 years.

72 people women, men and children lost their lives as a result of the fire; they are not here to speak out, but all of you are ensuring today that their voices are heard.

Martin Luther King stated that

‘Injustice everywhere is a threat to justice everywhere’,

and what happened at Grenfell will stay in our minds forever.

The campaign is fighting for justice and change. In February 2018, Justice 4 Grenfell drove 3 Billboards around London to ensure that what happened at Grenfell Tower stays in the public consciousness. This year we launched the ‘No Death in Vain’ Campaign at London Fashion week.

We will continue to speak out on the injustices surrounding the fire at Grenfell tower and keep it in the public domain; we will continue to demand that the public inquiry keeps ‘people’ at the heart of the process; we will continue to demand changes in laws and regulations, to prevent another disaster like Grenfell happening; we will continue to make demands so that everyone has a home where they are safe. Your continued support will be critical to this –

‘Justice will never be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those of us who are’.

The North Kensington community needs and appreciates your support at this difficult time.

We are with our community today. We are standing with Grenfell today and we want to say a heartfelt thank you to you for standing with us too.

In solidarity,

The Justice 4 Grenfell Campaign

Theresa May, your response to Grenfell is nothing to be proud of – Yvette Williams writes for The Metro

Yvette Williams writes for The Metro – Article is found here

Theres May, your response to Grenfell is nothing to be proud of
25th May 2019

Resigning on Friday, Theresa May expressed ‘deep regret’ that she didn’t deliver on Brexit. However, she went on to add things she was proud of and the progress she has made over the last three years including setting up ‘the independent inquiry into the tragedy at Grenfell Tower, to search for the truth, so nothing like it can ever happen again, and so the people who lost their lives that night are never forgotten.’

Oh dear Ms May this is a huge oversight on your part. It is with deep regret that we, at Justice4Grenfell, need to inform you that didn’t deliver on Grenfell either.

Let’s start at the very beginning. You paid a private visit to the site of the Grenfell disaster on the day after the fire, the building was still smouldering and you chose not to meet with survivors of the fire or the affected community citing concerns over security. Instead you met with the emergency services.

On hearing of the fury among local residents, you paid another visit, this time announcing your plans to hold a public inquiry; that all survivors would be housed within three weeks and you would leave no stone unturned to find out the truth of how the fire happened. May (excuse the pun) I bring you up to date on these promises. There are still families living in emergency and temporary accommodation 23 months on.

The former Grenfell tower residents were portrayed in sections of the media negatively as ‘immigrants’, asylum seekers, refugees, benefit scroungers and subletters. May I suggest you must take some responsibility for the part you played in this?  It was under your leadership at the Home Office that this ‘hostile environment’ was created.

This racist policy was the catalyst for creating alarm and division in our society; using immigration as the only reason for the increasing austerity at the time. You further promoted this by sending ‘Go Home’ anti-immigration vans into our neighbourhoods.

You appointed Sir Martin Moore-Bick to chair the Public inquiry. Traumatised families asked for additional diverse panel members – people who reflected their backgrounds. This was not a new concept, it had been done with the Stephen Lawrence inquiry.

Bereaved families took a petition to Downing Street; others met with you there. Grime artist Stormzy reached out to his social media following to gain 100,000 signatures on the petition. You did eventually relent.  But there were still strings attached; the additional panel members would only be part of phase two of the Inquiry. On your departure they are yet to be appointed and phase two has been delayed until next year.

You may have had sight of a report by charity group Inquest recently that stated that many of the bereaved families, survivors and affected community are losing trust in your promised inquiry. This is further compounded by a now delayed phase one report that should have been released in the spring and is now due in October.

It is unacceptable that nearly two years on, not one single recommendation has been made or change to legislation. The longer it takes for the inquiry to make recommendations, the longer the risk of further preventable loss of life remains. You also failed those who continue to feel unsafe in their homes.

You should also know that due to cuts to the fire service and continued deregulation firefighters were left with communication equipment that failed on the night of the fire and a lack of breathing apparatus. Your government should have implemented changes to this with a matter of urgency.

You could also look at your party’s tardy response to the removal of inflammable materials up and down the country; the installation of sprinklers as a mandatory feature and to the air and soil testing for toxins in our environment. This is not an exhaustive list.

So in drawing my conclusion Theresa, I find it difficult to comprehend why you would claim you are proud of the progress you have made following the Grenfell fire and add this to your legacy.

Perhaps you have some additional evidence to the contrary. But as a final point, please be minded that 72 dead and still no arrests is something no one should be proud of.

 

 

Kick It 4 Justice

 

 

On the 9th of June 2019, Justice4Grenfell & Grenfell Trust will be hosting a fundraising football tournament event. If you would like to submit a team, Send the team name to 07709145638 or Email [email protected] . Influencers such as AJ tracey, Conducta, Ashley Walters, QPR will be attending with many more.

J4G’s response to the MPS announcement – 7th March 2019

Justice4Grenfell say No to Justice delayed

London, 7 March 2019

21 months on from the Grenfell Tower fire that claimed the lives of 72 innocent people, bereaved families and survivors are rightly dismayed at the Police update which stated that that the Metropolitan Police Service will likely not file submissions for criminal charges to the CPS until at least 2021.

Nabil Choucair, bereaved family member and Chair of the Grenfell Trust, says

 “It is a complete disgrace and a betrayal of our loved ones that we lost on the 14thJune 2017. It appears to be a massive cover up and as if they are looking for excuses and loopholes not to prosecute so the guilty parties get off scot free. We will never stand for that”.

 Shahrokh Aghlani, who is also a bereaved family member, walked out of the meeting with Police yesterday in protest of the announcement.

Justice4Grenfell does not understand why the Police are waiting for the Public Inquiry evidence before sending a file to CPS – these are and should be handled as two separate investigations.

Justice4Grenfell share the views of bereaved families and the survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire and believe that justice delayed is justice denied. We will not accept a repeat of the mistakes of Hillsborough. We have recently seen example of ‘justice delayed and then denied’ in the case of Sean Rigg. The MPS needs to recognise that delay tactics usually have adverse outcomes.

We stand with the bereaved, survivors and local community in the fight to get justice for the 72 people who died and whilst we ask that the Police do a thorough investigation, it is not right that the families are faced with a 4 year wait for justice and change.

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